Finally catching up with some photos I took a couple of weeks ago at Sharpenoe clappers. It was a hot and fairly still day (remember those?). I got there reasonably early, but the butterflies were already very active. There were lots of Chalkhill Blues, so I finally managed to get a half decent shot of one.
Time for some colour. My friend Vic has a round flower bed in his drive, that he has turned into a miniature wild-flower meadow.
I was recently in Devon, visiting a friend, for a long weekend. The weather was mixed, but we were able to get out for a few walks. The biggest being a 10 mile loop on Dartmor. We walked over a few Tors, but, photographically, all of the interest was near the start of the walk at Belstone Tor. I opted to use the IR camera again, as I thought it would suit the conditions. I was expecting the twisted tree, but the Dartmoor ponies were a surprise bonus.
It's been a while since I last used the IR camera. So, I thought I would try a few shots in the churchyard of St Mary's in Eaton Socon. To encourage wildlife, the grass around the graves had been left long, which made a soft counterpoint to the stones. The early evening light also helped with some shadows.
Not a huge amount of success on my first dragonfly and damselfly hunting trips to Paxton Pits. I am fairly sure the dragons are Scarce Chasers. I have no idea as to the damselfly species. They all look the same to me.
Photographing the cow-parsley, that blooms on the bank behind my house, has become an annual ritual. Of course, if the subject doesn't change the approach to shooting it should. This year I decided to try in-camera multiple exposure images. I wanted to get something impressionistic and painterly, rather than totally abstract.
One of the annoying things about the Olympus Om-D E-M1 is that its multiple exposure mode only allows two images to be combined. It is possible to select that double image as the first image in a second double shot, and build up from there. But, honestly, who can be bothered? Instead it was back to the trusty old Canon 7D. This has a lot more options regarding both the number of images that can be combined and the blending method. The drawback of the 7D is the lack of electronic viewfinder, meaning I couldn't see the overlay of the previous shot(s). I tried using the rear screen to compose, but the light was too strong to see properly, so in the end I just trusted to luck.
Each of these images is an 8-shot in-camera multiple exposure, combined in additive mode. I made very slight movements between shots, whilst trying to focus on a single point. I found that the least amount of movement gave me the look I was after.
